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Task Description

Hi this is Art, and I'm gladly bringing you the cozy windows tutorial by Marina Anohina. Open Adobe Illustrator and create new document by selecting New from the File menu. I the opened window, enter 600 pixels for the width and 600 pixels for the height, press OK. Select the Rectangle tool, click anywhere on the artboard and enter 200 pixels for the width and 300 pixels for the height. Activate the Smart Guides in View menu, take the Selection tool and align our rectangle Horizontal Left and Vertical Top. Don't deselect the shape, press Alt + Shift keys and move the rectangle to the right you'll create a copy. Place it onto the right side of the original rectangle, the Smart Guides will help you do it precisely, press Ctrl + D to repeat the last action. Select all three rectangles and duplicate them like we did before. Press Alt + Shift and drag them to the bottom. Go to the layers panel, you can find it in Windows menu, rename our layer to greed and lock it. I like to work with two Artboards for the main composition and drop drawings so open the artboard panel from the Windows menu and press the new artboard icon. We'll draw six windows with different sizes and shapes. I was inspired by photo series windows of the world made by Andrea Gonzalez. Feel free to google images for your own source of inspiration. We'll color our windows in the next steps. Just because it's more clear and easy to understand how the shape is building. It's okay, if you work in black and white mode and then color the artwork. But we start with creating a color bleed, here are our colors. Will use the stroke width one point width and this hue of brown everywhere. Let's start with the simplest window. Create a new layer and name it window 1. Draw a rectangle 135 by 170 pixels and color it, just take the Eyedropper tool and select the necessary circle. Duplicate the rectangle by pressing Ctrl + C and Ctrl + F, recolor the copy and make another one. Select the second copy, go to the Effect menu and select Path > Offset Path, enter - 10 pixels in the Object menu, select Expand Appearance to separate our rectangles. Select the inner rectangle and duplicated by pressing Ctrl + C and Ctrl + F. Select this copy and the big rectangle and press Minus Front icon in the Pathfinder panel. This way, we create the frame. Take the Line Segment tool and draw a vertical line, which intersects the inner rectangle. Hold the Shift key to keep the line true vertical. Select the line and the rectangle with Selection tool, click once again on the rectangle to select it as a key object for alignment and press Horizontal Align Center icon. Don't deselect the objects, open the Pathfinder panel from the Windows menu and press Divide. Go to the Object menu and select Ungroup. Return to our stroke, to inner rectangles draw a 40 by 40 pixels square. Place it as shown. Press Alt and Shift keys and drag the copy down, select both squares and press Ctrl + V, double click on the Blend tool in the tool panel, select specified steps and enter one. Select our blend and the inner left rectangle, click once again at the rectangle to select it as a key object and align the objects by Horizontal Center and Vertical Center. Select blended squares and go to Expand in the Object menu. Select squares and the left rectangle and press Minus Front icon in the Pathfinder panel. Delete the right inner rectangle and drag a copy of our inner window to the right. Press Alt + Shift keys, like we did before. With Line Segment tool, draw a line, which is a little bigger than the inner window. Go to Effect menu and select Distort and Transform > Zigzag. Enable the preview checkbox, select the smooth points and enter the absolute size around 2 pixels and try different amount of ridges per segment to make the nice wavy line. This will be the bottom line of our curtain, go to Object menu and Expand Appearance. Take the Pen tool and continue the lines to make a rectangle with wavy bottom line. Place our curtain where it should be and drag it down in the layer menu, adjust the size of the curtain if needed. Create another curtain in the same way, but make it smoother, place it above the first curtain. Let's draw some folds on the curtain. Double-click on the smoother curtain to enter the Isolated mode. Take the Pen tool and draw the folds. Color it with darker hue of curtain color and take off the stroke, double-click on the artboard to exit the isolated mode. Draw two long rectangles with 60 pixels width and height around 12 and 7 pixels. Select them and double-click on the rotate tool, enter -40 degrees and press OK. Place them above the left bottom glass window, you should overlap the window. But try not to go beyond the outer frame. Change the fill color to white and go to Transparency panel, select the Screen blend mode and lower the Opacity to 70%. Make some copies of these reflections on the glass, adjust the size if needed. Select all reflections press Ctrl + G to group them. Drag this group under the frame in the layers panel, our first window is done. Let's try something more difficult, draw a rectangle, grab the Add Anchor Point tool and add a point in the center of top line. With Direct Selection tool, select the point and pull it up. Round this point using the Live Corners manipulator. Select the whole shape with Selection tool and duplicate it by pressing Ctrl + C and Ctrl + F. Select the copy and choose Path > Offset Path from the Effect menu. Check the preview box and select some negative value to make the inner frame. Go to Object > Expand Appearance. Select the bigger shape and move it a bit higher, just a few pixels. Then grab the Direct Selection tool, select two bottom points and pull them up to the smallest shape level. Draw a small rectangle, select its left points with Direct Selection tool and round them. Right-click on the shape with Selection tool and select Transform > Reflect. Choose Vertical and press Copy. Place the copy symmetrically, draw two lines on the left side to emit the relief of stone column. Duplicate them to the right side. Select the bigger shape and duplicate it, take off the fill color for the copy and move it lower. Select bottom points with Direct Selection tool and delete them. Duplicate this arc shape and pull the copy up. Draw a long rectangle in the bottom of our window, select it and the central shape, click on the central shape once again to set it as a key object and press the Horizontal Align Center icon. Select the long rectangle, hold the Alt and Shift keys and drag down a copy of the figure. Press Ctrl + D to repeat the action. Select the first copy hold the Alt key and scale the rectangle to make it shorter. The Alt key makes the object scale from the center, round the corners a bit. Select the second copy and scale it too. Select the bottom points with Direct Selection tool and double-click on the scale tool. Check the preview box and lower the uniform scale amount. Recolor the bottom shapes in darker hues of gray. Let's move to the inner part, select it and duplicate, draw a horizontal line to divide the copy in two parts, select the shape and the line then press the Divide icon in the Pathfinder panel. Don't forget to return our stroke if it disappears. Ungroup our shapes in the Object menu, select the top shape, duplicate it and make an Offset Path. Expand Appearance, select both shapes and press Minus Front in Pathfinder panel. Draw a narrow vertical rectangle in the middle of the top shape, make two copies and place them at the sides. Adjust the height of the copies to stay within the window. Make one more copy rotated by 90 degrees and scale it to make it longer. Select three vertical narrow rectangles, set the align to selection mode in the align panel and click the Horizontal Distribute Center icon. Press Ctrl + G to group the rectangles, select them and one of the big center shapes. Set the big shape as a key object and align the group by Horizontal Center. Select the group, the horizontal rectangle and the top frame and press Unite icon in the Pathfinder panel. Let's move to the second part, draw a vertical line to half the rectangle. Align it to the rectangle, select the line and the rectangle and Divide it in the Pathfinder panel. Ungroup the objects, draw a smaller rectangle in the left part and align it. Duplicate this shape select the copy and the bigger rectangle and press the Minus Front icon and Pathfinder panel. Now we'll draw small windows like we did with the previous window. Create a square or a rectangle, make a copy of it, select both of them and press Ctrl + B to create a blend. Double click on the blend tool to select two specified steps. Expand objects and make a copy of this group, select all small windows and press Ctrl + G to group them together. Align them to the rectangle and cut them from it by pressing Minus Front icon. Duplicate the left part. I copied reflections from the first window, adjust the size and shape if needed. If you draw a new reflection, keep the angle. Hide the reflections under the frame. Here's another way to create a shape with a rounded top part. Let's create a balcony in this technique. Create a new layer and rename it, make a rectangle with a fixed width, in our case, it's a 110 pixels. Create a circle with 110 width too. Place it so that its lateral points coincide with the top points of the rectangle. Select both shapes and press Unite icon in Pathfinder panel. Make two copies. Select the second one and make an Offset Path with a small negative value. There is a new one with the offset path and its expansion. When you make an offset path of the shape with stroke, the result is a group of two objects. One object with fill and one with a stroke. In many cases, it's okay, but if you have to modify this shape further, go to the object menu, select ungroup, delete the shape with the stroke and set the stroke type for the figure with fill. Make two copies of the last created shape, select one of the copies and the outer bigger shape, press the Minus Front icon from the Pathfinder panel to create the outer frame. Select another copy of inner shape and make an offset path. Expand it. Grab the Line Segment tool and separate the rounded top part of the shape with the help of the Divide icon in Pathfinder panel. Ungroup the objects and resize the rectangle to make it shorter, cut the rectangle and the rounded part from the previous shape, select them and press Minus Front. Let's draw some frame partitions. Create a narrow vertical rectangle and align it to the inner shape, duplicate it and resize. Select the Rotate tool and click on the base of the figure to set the rotation center. Hold the Shift key and rotate the rectangle by 45 degrees. Duplicate it and rotate the copy to create symmetrical partition. Make another copy of the narrow rectangle and place it horizontally. Select all narrow rectangles and the inner shape and Unite them in the Pathfinder panel. Copy and Paste some reflections, adjust them using the Direct Selection tool. Group reflections together by pressing Ctrl + G and hide the group under the frame. Now let's draw balcony railings, draw a vertical rectangle with Direct Selection tool, select two bottom points and round them. Select two top points and grab the scale tool and scale them down. Draw a small rounded rectangle above the shape and align these two figures. Reflect them making copy and place it below. Draw a small rectangle to bridge two copies, align it. Select all the structure and Unite in the Pathfinder panel. Hold Shift and Alt keys and drag a copy of the shape to the right. Press Ctrl D, as many times as many copies you want to create. Group your railings by pressing Ctrl + G, draw a long rectangle above the row, make a copy and place it below. Draw another rectangle below, select all three long rectangles, the railings row and the shape of the balcony door. Set this shape as a key object and align everything. You can adjust the size of the door and the balcony is done. Let's make a window with shutters. Create a new layer and draw a shape like we did with the balcony door. Unite the rectangle and the circle. Make two offset paths and create the frame like we did before, but keep the inner shape, it's a glass window. Draw a narrow vertical rectangle and align it to the window. Don't deselect your shapes after alignment, and make a copy by pressing Ctrl + C and Ctrl + F. Press the Divide icon in the Pathfinder panel, ungroup figures in the Object menu, and delete everything, except the left shape. Reflect it and place to the left of the window. Draw a horizontal line to intersect your shutter. Drag a copy down holding Shift and Alt keys. Press Ctrl + D to make more copies and fill the whole shape. Duplicate the shutter shape, right click on it and select Arrange > Bring to front. Select our lines and this new shape, right click on them and select Create Clipping Mask. Group your lines and shutter, duplicate the group and place the copy symmetrically. Select the window shape and the rectangle and press Intersect in the Pathfinder panel to get rid of the excess parts of the rectangle. Add some reflections and three long rectangles above the window, don't forget to align them. Now we want more railings take the Spiral tool and draw a spiral, go to the stroke panel and select Round Cap. Reflect the spiral vertically making a copy and move it to the right like this. Draw a square rotated by 45 degrees. With Direct Selection tool, select its lateral points and scale them down to make the diamond shape and round corners a bit. Place the shape on the top of spiral intersection, select all three shapes and group them pressing Ctrl + G. Reflect it horizontally creating a copy and drag the copy below the original group. Select two groups and group them too. Hold Alt and Shift keys and drag the group to the right to make a copy. Press Ctrl + D twice to repeat the action. Group the spiral row and draw two rounded rectangles below and above. Place railings above the window and adjust the size. Don't forget to align your objects. We don't want our railings intersect with shuttle lines. Double-click on the shuttle group, and then on the lines to enter isolated mode and delete unnecessary lines. Another window and another layer, draw a window with frame like we did before, use offset path and Pathfinder panel, duplicate the result and add reflections. Let's add a balcony with carved pattern. We'll start with the pattern, draw a circle with a strok and without fill, swap them in the tool panel. Draw a rectangle round it a bit, duplicate, rotate the copy and unite shapes. Align the two created figures, select the rotate tool set the center of rotation at the center of the circle and rotate the shape by 90 degrees. Hold the Alt and Shift keys to rotate precisely and make a copy. Repeat this action twice. Draw a small rectangle, round the corners and place it like shown. Align it to the circle, grab the rotate tool and set the center of rotation in the center of the circle. Make copies and rotate them by 45 degrees. Duplicate the circle and place the copy in the top-left corner of our pattern. Align the circle to the neighboring crosses, rotate and duplicate the circle like we did before. Select all objects, press Shift and Alt keys and drag the copy to the right. The lateral crosses are our landmarks, they should overlap. Press Ctrl + D to repeat the action and delete extra crosses. Select all pattern and group shapes. Draw a rectangle around these elements and send it backwards, align objects. Copy the rectangle by pressing Ctrl + C and paste the copy in back by pressing Ctrl + V. Scale the copy to make it wider, hold Alt key to scale from the center. Create two narrow rectangles above and copy them below. Align all objects, group them and connect to our window. Draw a flowerpot, modify a rectangle and draw the greenery with Pen tool. And the last window. In a new layer, create a window from the elements we've already made in this tutorial. Draw the window itself with offset paths. Create the shutter, in this case, we'll just draw a rectangle and add some hinges. Decorate the shutter with lines, hide unnecessary parts with clipping masks, reflect the copy. Draw the curtain from the line with zigzag effect and add folds. Windows look dull if no one is there. Let's draw a girl having a cup of tea. We'll start from the head, draw an ellipse, select the bottom point and scale it down with the Scale tool. Select lateral points and move them a bit lower. It's the shape of her face. Draw another ellipse for the lips. With Convert Anchor Point tool, turn lateral points into angles. Add two additional points using the Add Anchor Point tool. Convert the top point into the angle and move it lower. Select lateral points and move them up. Adjust your lips to get more attractive shape, we don't need the stroke for the girl. We'll draw the eyes with the Pen tool use with profile 5 for the stroke, set the width profile 1 for eyebrows. Draw the hair with a ellipse tool and use Pathfinder panel to get necessary shapes. Make some adjustments, group objects and rotate a bit to tilt the head. We'll use a rectangle to create the body, round top points and scale up bottom points. Create two ellipses for the hand and the wrist. Scale the lateral points and adjust the shape as shown. With the Pen tool, set a round cap and thick wait select fingers and go to Object > Expand. Select only stroke and press OK. Make some adjustments. Group fingers with the wrists, duplicate the whole hand and set it aside. Draw a cup of tea from a modified rectangle and an ellipse and an expanded stroke. Group the cup's elements and arrange our groups so that the girl hold the cup. Let's go back to the hands copy. Reflect it, delete the thumb and make the hand lay. Take a look at the girl, group all her figures and place her in the window. Our windows are done. Let's build a wall for them. We'll use a brick pattern for this. Draw a rectangle with the stroke and without fill, select it and choose Pattern > Make from the Object menu. You'll enter the pattern editing mode. Increase the width and height to add more space and start creating the pattern. Duplicate the rectangle and change the width of copies to add randomness. Make 4 rows of bricks and adjust the width and the height of the pattern to make it seamless. Select all bricks, go to Object menu > Expand. Select only stroke, press done when your pattern is ready. Now we have all the elements, let's arrange them on the first artboard. Select and group every window with all its elements. Resize windows if needed, unlock the grid layer and use this block for alignment. When you're satisfied, hide the grid layer and create a new one below all existing layers, name it background. Draw a square, 600 by 600 pixels, and align it to the artboard. Set its fill to the light shade of grey and take off the stroke. Make a copy of the square and apply our pattern to it. Go to the Transparency panel and lower the opacity. You can resize the pattern, double click on the Scale tool, check the preview box, select only transform pattern and scale it as you wish. Take a Rectangle tool and create shadows under windows with the balcony or the sill, use the multiply blending mode and lower the opacity.